Shackled Shadows & Golden Skies
by Whynoteh
Summary: Follow Blake as she tries to escape and make up for her past with Adam by becoming a Huntress with Yang and Sun. Warning: POV switches abound/all characters included/includes most genres/gets dark occasionally. I do not own RWBY.
1. Chapter 1: Autumn of Childhood

In the autumn of the red woods, the winds carried millions of abandoned crimson leafs along the sky for several miles, seeing the beauty of the forest from above, all of the mountains and valleys, all of the clouds in the sky, all of the trees rooted in the ground, all for one last time, one last time before being carried to it's grave upon the forest floor, where it will wait to wilt and decay, assimilating into the dirt once again. One of these strayed children of the trees met with a strayed child in a tree, the leaf blowing into the face of a young girl as she read upon her branch.

A thirteen year old Blake scrunched up and wiggled her face, blowing away the intruder tickling her nose, letting out a giggle she didn't see a reason to hold in. She went back to her book, a book about a knight in shining armor traveling across the lands in search of the prophesied weapon to defeat the evil monster plaguing his world, but was once again interrupted by... not a familiar face.

"Blake!" Adam called up to the tree.

She closed her book and leaned over to spot her mentor at the base of the tree. "Whats with the mask?" she called out, never having seen Adam wear the Grimm face. She jumped down from the branch, landing feet from him.

"It's a symbol. Humanity wants to make monsters out of us, so we shall don the faces of monsters" Adam explained, his voice lower but flat in nature as always.

Blake chuckled again, and poked him. "You practiced that, didn't you?" she said. Adam looked sternly down at her, not amused by her mocking his somber and serious delivery.

"I assume then you don't want your gift then..." he said, turning to walk away.

She reached out, "Wait! I'm sorry..." she lowered her head, ashamed of herself for teasing Adam.

"Fine." He held out his hand, in it, the last component of Gambol Shroud, the sheath.

"Wow..." Blake whispered, taking hold of her birthday present, falling over not realizing how heavy the sheath is compared to the rest of her weapon.

"I think thirteen is old enough for you to start using the last piece, now come on, we are to patrol outside the camp..." Adam said, turning around and walking away for real this time.

Blake dragged the sheath cleaver behind her by the only grip possible, the rough metal handle which immediately started to blister her left hand. Wincing through the pain, she was curious as to a few things.

"Say, Adam, you turned eighteen recently right? Why didn't you go to school to train to become a huntsmen again?" She already knew the answer, but she felt she needed to insist the point onto him.

"How can I help the White Fang while playing hero in a classroom? Honestly Blake..." he snarked back, displeased with her.

"Well, if you were to become a public hero and everything, you know, maybe that could prove a point to the humans" she said optimistically, smiling all the while.

"It's already been done before, and it's not enough for the humans."

She pouted, "hmmm. By the way, do you know where Chiffon is? I haven't seen her around today..." Chiffon was Tukson's daughter who was around Blake's age and also Blake's friend. She was also under Adam's tutelage, working for the White Fang. She was a sweet girl who wore a almost white skirt and a beige-

"She went off on her own yesterday and got herself killed." Adam kept walking, not looking back to see Blake freeze in her tracks, eyes blank and tears flowing.

-~2 years later-

Blake sat in her tree, leafs blowing in the wind like always, reading her book. The book was about a thief, a thief who was a criminal but was good at heart, helping out the sick and poor, rebelling against the unjust king who was oppressing his people. While daydreaming, she skimmed over several pages without reading them, and tried to go back a few pages using her left hand, but couldn't. The permanent callouses on her hand had no grip on the paper, forcing her to turn the pages with her right.

"Blake!" Adam called out.

She smiled widely. "Coming!" she called back.

Adam was one of her only friends she knew at this point, the two of them going on so many missions without staying in any one place for long at all. She recognized a few faunas every now and then, but didn't really get the chance to talk to them. It would be tough for most anyone with such a busy, tiring schedule and profession, but Blake thought to herself how it was alright as long as Adam was with her.

Walking along with Adam, she was curious as to a few things.

"Adam, who are your parents? What're they like?" she asked, head tilted.

After a minute long silence, Blake not expecting an answer, Adam spoke up, still harsh in tone as always. "My mother is dead."

Not too surprised, she asked "And your father?"

"Isn't."

"What's he like?"

"Weak."

"Why?"

"Reasons."

"What reasons?"

"Reasons."

"Do you still love him?"

"No."

-~3 years later-

"Hmmm" Blake murmured in mild interest.

A bulletin board in a far flung village advertised Beacon's new school year starting a month later in the end of summer. Blake took the information at face value and left the village, dashing through the forest and finding her old spot, her branch to read on. She jump up onto the branch and settled in, pulling out her book, a book she just started that seemed to be about a man with two souls fighting for control. Before she got three words in however, Adam was waiting behind the tree.

"Blake" he said.

His voice saying her name made her heart flutter, and without hesitation, she jumped down to meet Adam.

"Yes?" she replied, tucking some of her bangs behind her ear. Her excitement left her however when she reminded herself that he came to brief her on a job, nothing more.

"Tomorrow, we will highjack dusk from a train shipment heading to Vale, wait before noon at spot 23." He turned to walk away.

"Adam?" she asked nervously.

He stopped, and to her surprise, turned back to face her.

"Have you ever loved anyone before?" she inquired, mustering every fiber of courage in her body.

"Why?" he asked, but turned around and walked away before Blake could respond.

"Because, I think I do right now..." she whispered to herself, saying what she had wanted to say for a long time now.

-Much Later-

Blake was wondering around town during Ruby's supposed 'Best Day Ever' with Sun and Neptune, and to her disbelief, she found Tukson's Book Shop, complete with it's own little tacky tag line. She went to check out the store but found that the lights and blinds had been blacked out, signifying he had closed it for the day. A little disappointed that she wouldn't be able to visit her friend she had known once when she was just a little girl today, she decided to come back around the next day. She hadn't seen him for over a decade already, whats another day?

Blake had made it a point of cutting all White Fang ties since parting with Adam- the thought of Adam made Blake's heart ache, and she pushed him out of her mind- but Blake knew Tukson well from her childhood. He was always nice and polite, always weary of the White Fang getting too aggressive, and she knew Tukson wouldn't turn her in.

_Hell, if I thought they got too radical, he probably isn't with them anymore..._

Blake thought that maybe if she talked to Tukson, her worries about Roman and the White Fang might could be tempered a little to calm her down.

The windows and door were still blacked out, but time wise it was the prime time to sell and do business. Blake became suspicious. Looking around quickly, no one seemed to pay any attention to her. She turned the door knob, it's being unlocked setting off several alarms in Blake's head. Slipping into the shop, she closed the door behind her and looked side to side, making sure no one was waiting for her.

Then she looked forward, and saw a man face down on the ground. She slowly walked towards him, weary of his condition, and kneeled beside him. She turned him over, looked once at him, then ran out of the building and puked.

It was Tukson, that much was obvious. And he was dead, once again, obvious. His throat was collapsed, swelled and purple from the blood pooling inside, and his head had flopped grotesquely, giving her the impression his neck had been attacked, snapping his neck and crushing his throat, tearing his brain stem. Some one had attacked him, then left him to suffocate and drown in his own blood, Tukson unable to move or do anything to prevent it. Tukson was dead. Some one killed him. Recently.

She looked down at the stomach acid and giblets of food she had consumed earlier splattered onto the cement of the side walk. Some passerby's gathered around her, asking if she was okay, concerned with her state.

"Call the police. There has been a murder..." she choked out.

-End Chapter 1-


	2. Chapter 2: Objects of Attention

Blake kept tabs on the police investigation regarding Tukson's murder, but their attention was quickly diverted to Roman's activities, especially after the disaster on the highway bridge, effectively halting their progress. Blake took it upon herself to investigate, and using her superior sense of smell, she found a fired bullet casing that had flown into the crack between two books within Tukson's Book Trade, evidence the police had missed. The bullet casing left a faint scent of sulfur and dust even after several days, allowing Blake to find it and gain the massive first step in finding out who the bullet belonged to, finding in turn the one who killed Tukson, but one problem remained. The bullet could belong to anyone, literally anyone. Figuring as nothing was taken from the registers, the murder was personal, narrowing down the suspect list to family, of which he had none, and the White Fang, meaning it also affected Blake herself, as she could be targeted too.

If it was the White Fang or any of their affiliates, it could be faunas or human, young or old, seeing as how her encounter with Roman and the short umbrella girl demonstrated the White Fang's willingness to expand their scope of assistance, not helping in the end in finding out who killed Tukson. If they did kill Tukson however, it did mean that they had to have some skill, making them a more valuable member, meaning that if Blake did find them, they could possibly find out about Roman's or the White Fang's plans. _Or am I giving Tukson too much credit? _ thought Blake for a brief moment before continuing on with her obsession.

Blake examined the round. It was a standard nickel plated brass long casing for a .44 caliber magnum bullet, but the casing seemed to be homemade, as there was no company name or make on the rim of the bullet, meaning who ever made this didn't want their purchase in any books or records. Blake did the same until recently. Inside the Beacon Library, Blake rolled the casing in her hand while she searched all of the news sites for any possible leads just the same as she had done every night since she discovered her dead friend, earning the deep bags under her eyes. It was while she was fruitlessly looking through the names of recently caught criminals that a red dot appeared on her holo screen.

She stared angrily at it. _If this is someone's laser sight, I hope they're ready for a fight _she thought to herself, her blood boiling at sight of the red menace on her screen.

It started moving, dancing back and forth. Blake's mind went blank. Frustration re-emerged in her mind, but this time, it wasn't for any reason other than the fact that this red dot wasn't contained.

It appeared on her hand.

She slapped her hand to catch it, the red dot disappearing.

It reappeared, and the girl in black cupped her hands over the dot once again, her brow furrowed in determination.

The dot evaded her, and scurried across the ground away from her.

She followed it, stomping her feet farther and farther in front of her each time in an attempt to catch it.

The red dot turned a corner, the girl following.

"~Helloooo!" Yang sang, grabbing Blake and dragging her off to an empty classroom.

Blake clenched her teeth in silent rage and embarrassment at her lack of sleep allowing her to degenerate into a fool following her primal instincts, forgetting all of her current problems for the sake of a laser pointer.

"Yang, if you're going to tell me to stop, you may as well save your breath" Blake said, trying to be patient with Yang as she paced back and forth.

Yang, who was sitting crisscrossed comfortably on the table, corrected Blake, "I don't want you to stop, I want you to slow down."

More irritated then before, the girl in black argued "I don't have the luxury to slow down..." She wanted to tell Yang about Tukson, but she also didn't want anyone caught up in her business.

Calmly, the bruiser argued back, "It's not a luxury, it's a necessity."

Blake was angry now, after all, what did Yang know? "The 'necessity' is stopping Torchwick!" she snapped back.

"And we're going to. But first you have to sit down and listen to what I have to say" she patted the area of desk in front of her, smiling at Blake innocently.

Blake wanted to slap Yang in her ignorance, Yang and her assumption that things were just always peachy, but Blake conceded, "Fine" she whispered.

Yang started on her tale of her childhood, explaining the disappearance of both Ruby's mom and Yang's mom, Taiyang not reacting well to having lost two loves in such a short time. Blake at first didn't see any point in Yang's story, but then found herself wrapped up in the circumstances surrounding Yang's mother.

"Why did she leave you?" she asked, remembering back for just a moment to when she herself left her parents.

The bruiser continued on, describing the night she took Ruby to search for answers about her mother, and their near demise had it not been for Qrow. Yang finished off with "My stubbornness should've gotten us killed that night" and put down her chalk, a clockwork eye having been perfectly drawn on the board.

_This is different_ Blake thought, not finding herself able to blame Yang anymore, Yang not knowing what exactly is going on. "Yang... I'm sorry that happened to you, and I understand what you're trying to tell me, but this is different. I'm not a child, and this isn't just a search for answers! I can't just-"

This time Yang was the angry one, "I told you, I'm not telling you to stop! I haven't! To this day, I still want to know what happened to my mother and why she left me, but I will never let that search control me. We're going to find the answers we're looking for, Blake, but if we destroy ourselves in the process, what good are we?" She still faced the board and not Blake.

Blake put her hand to her chest, "You don't understand! I'm the only one who can do this!"

Yang turned around, her eyes red, "No, you don't understand! If Roman walked through that door, what would you do?" she yelled, her voice actually striking a chord of fear inside Blake.

Shouting back, but without conviction, "I'd fight him!" Blake answered.

"You'd lose!" Yang pushed Blake into the desk, making a point.

"I can stop him!" Blake tried to push Yang back, but without any of her energy, Yang didn't budge, further proving her point.

"You can't even stop me!" and one more time Yang shoved her, Blake resting on the desk just to stand up straight. Yang took the two steps to close in on Blake, the girl in black leaning into the desk to make herself seem smaller as if to hide from the bruiser. But instead of hurting Blake, Yang embraced her.

"I'm not asking you to stop. Just please, get some rest. Not just for you, but for the people you care about" Yang let go and walked away to leave the classroom, but added in with a wink before leaving, "and if you feel like coming out tomorrow, I'll save you a dance..."

And thus Blake was left alone in the classroom, staring at what she assumed was Qrow's emblem. She pulled the casing from her thin pocket, and rolled it around in her hand as she turned to look out the window instead, watching the sun fall below the horizon. She laid down on the table, taking time to rethink everything she knew. She thought, _so what if I find who this bullet belongs to? If they really want me dead, they'll send whoever they think can do the job, and if we successfully stop the White Fang eventually, then we would be stopping whoever killed Tukson as well. And Yangs right, I can't fight without sleep, so what's the point for searching news feeds for recently caught criminals if I can't protect myself from those who are truly to be feared. Learn to fight first, ask questions later. Ha, I bet that's the philosophy Yang's lived by for all these years..._

The sun drew lower, eventually striking rays of sunshine upon the laying Blake, the warmth lulling the girl into a sense of security, and she allowed her eyelids to close. She slept through the night until morning.

Yang opened the garage door, the fluorescent lights flickering on to reveal her totaled motorcycle, Bumblebee, sitting in a cold concrete workshop with pools of oil surrounding the bike.

"Thanks Joe..." Yang payed up lien to the owner of the garage compartments, a brown haired man with dirtied brown overalls standing at 6' and 300 lbs. with most of it being muscle, 'most' being the key word.

"You could've avoided this if you had just parked it more to the side..." Mr. Hazel advised, giving Yang the keys to the bike back and heading out.

"Yeah yeah, next time I have to fight a renowned criminal rampaging in a giant robot suit, I'll take my time to carefully park my bike so some dumb-ass doesn't ram into it..." she snarked back with folded arms. Walking up to her mess of a bike, she finally built the courage to examine the damage it took.

She could tell where it was rammed into, the right side, what with the air intake crumpled in, but that wasn't the only damage. All of the plastic fairing was messed up beyond repair, the little windshield was gone completely, the handle bar was bent, the leather seat was torn, the steel body frame had bent in the middle section and snapped completely in front of the engine block, and the plastic air filter behind the air intake was, of course, shattered.

"I got some work ahead of me..." she said to herself.

-End Chapter 2-


	3. Chapter 3: Strictly Ballroom

**Happy New Years Everybody!**

The night air was cold as per the coming season of winter, but excitement born of passion and nervousness alike kept the teenagers of Beacon and the other academies making their way to the dancing hall warm. Blake didn't need the excitement to keep her warm, Blake having spent most of her years out in the boondocks through the seasons without fail was accustomed to the cold. The excitement however certainly did help.

"Stupid dumb neck trap!" Sun spitted out while wrestling with his white tie, unaware of his surroundings.

Harking back to something Sun said to her, Blake greeted him with "I knew you'd look better in a tie."

Sun dropped his object of frustration, of which Blake closed the distance between them to fix. She undid the off kilter knot Sun used to get his tie on, then proceeded to weave the cheap fabric into a proper gentlemen's knot, and fixed Sun's collar while she was at it.

"You didn't have any other tie, did you?" she taunted, pointing out the low quality of the cloth, not that she cared of course. She took him by the arm and directed them to the dance hall.

Disregarding her jab, "Soooooo, does this mean we're going... together?" he asked nervously, not wanting to offend her incase they some how weren't together by her logic. To Sun, as different as Blake was, she was still a girl. And as a girl, she doesn't think like boys do as he discovered in his latter years in combat school.

"Technically, though my first dance is spoken for" Blake answered back, thinking of Yang's offer. Sun just smirked to himself thinking _'there it is, technically, she couldn't say yes, she couldn't say no, she had to give a grey answer. I knew it, Blake is a girl...'_

Entering the ballroom, Blake and Sun were greeted by Yang, who as always looked fetching, who as always without asking fetched Blake from Sun and pulled her onto the dance floor. The girl of yellow immediately started a brisk pace between the two friends, bobbing back and forth and side to side.

"My my my, you're beautiful! I might have to borrow that dress eventually..." Yang started off with, clearly ready to be foolish if it meant a few good laughs.

Blake looked to the side awkwardly, "I don't... I don't think you'd fit into it..."

"I heard rips are the new fashion. You can actually pay more to buy your jeans pre torn" Yang mused semi seriously.

"Thats ridiculous!" the thought of wasting good clothing like that infuriated Blake, allowing her response to be somewhat sincere.

"You know what's ridiculous? The doilies. Weiss got her doilies, but I don't see any fog machines" Yang pouted.

"I'm... sorry." Blake didn't see fog machines as a worthwhile addition to the dance, but there was no use in telling her that.

"I know right?" Yang clicked her tongue, "I'll kill Weiss later as compensation. No, scratch that. I need lien, I'll rob her as compensation. Wanna help?"

"No. That would break basic sorority rules" Blake chuckled.

"Oh, I see how it is, and..." Yang lowered her voice and grinned, "I see you brought Sun... I mean I figured you would go with him, but, you seemed quite comfortable on his arm..." Yang gave her dance partner two over the top winks that moved her whole face just to be goofy. But as comical as the bruiser made her point, she was right Blake thought. In all her years with Adam, she received little attention or tenderness, making Blake the quiet, stoic girl she is now. But now in this new environment, only after a brief period, she has been treated so... nicely, and this is something Blake could get used to. Blake missed Yang's point.

"Sun is a good person, so I don't see anything wrong with enjoying his company" Blake answered utterly sincerely and without a hint of defense.

"Do I have to worry about children now?" Yang teased, lifting her hand in the air prompting Blake to perform a twirl, then proceeding with the dance. Blake stared at Yang in confusion for several seconds, finally saying "Wait-" before Yang continued.

"Has it occurred to you that Sun is interested as possibly more than a friend? I mean, you read all those black cover books yet you haven't connected the flashing dots?" Yang asked in disbelief. Blake blushed. It hadn't occurred to her that Sun might be 'interested' when it should've been obvious, especially with her habit of reading books with romance and sex as major plot points or rather the whole focus. She should've been the first person to think of a potential relationship, but as real life goes, one doesn't believe they will be the one to win in most circumstances.

"Wait!" she started whispering anxiously, "you think he's interested?" she asked, closing in on Yang to keep anyone from overhearing.

Yang sighed. "I would bet on it. Like, alot..." the last part she added for effect, rolling her eyes.

"Well then, uh, hmm..." Blake looked at her feet, avoiding eye contact with Yang and the onlooking Sun. "What should I do!?" she whispered again, looking directly at Yang. Thoughts of her regret filled life with Adam flashed through her mind, driving her to want to make the right decisions this time, and thus she desired advice.

"Be yourself" Yang answered simply and innocently, still dancing.

Blake scowled at her.

"To be yourself is all you can do, because any false acts will yield to time..." Yang sagely advised.

Rolling her eyes with a smile, Blake called her out, "You practiced that, didn't you?" then suddenly fell short of breath, remembering a moment long past.

Yang's sage like demeanor broke instantly to her saying, "Nah, I just heard it on a show recently. Honestly if you ask me, if what they said is true, no normal person would be able to get a date, being boring and all..."

"Yannnng" Blake growled.

"My advice, show that his presence makes a difference to you" she retorted.

"Makes sense..." the girl in black thought out loud.

"But what ever you do, it has to be with him!" Yang spun Blake around, passing her off to Sun who had waited patiently for his turn.

'_Yang!'_ Blake shouted in her mind, not pleased with Yang's abrupt methods.

"Would you care to dance?" Sun bowed with his hand out, making a commendable attempt at proper etiquette.

She gave a small giggle, a real one, and said "I'm pretty sure you don't look at the floor when you ask for a dance, I'd love to though" taking his hand in hers, then started moving in rhythm.

For several minutes, the two of them moved across the dance floor, their emotions ranging wildly from moment to moment. One moment, they would look at each other confidently, smile, sway in sync, then one would blush, and each dancer avoids looking at the other, and one would step on the other's foot in their fluster, prompting them to laugh nervously, then start the cycle all over. Neither said a word, each lost to their thoughts, Sun finding himself entirely lost to Blake for all the different reasons he could conjure, while Blake... Blake was mostly just lost.

For Sun, it was simple. He has known many girls in his time, but even as a young teenage boy with a playboy style, few have actually caught his attention for one reason or another, the reasons admittedly thinning out as he made his way through the latter years of combat school. Then Blake came along. He didn't know what it was about her, but at the same time, he did know, he knew what it was about her that made him simply attracted to her. Blake is interesting, at least to Sun. Blake is stoic, and Sun always liked the idea of a girl tougher and cooler than him. Blake is not a poser, she lets her actions speak for her, and Sun could never stand preachy people, a reason he never even considered joining the White Fang. Blake carries herself with purpose, and Sun found that respectable. Blake is... despondent, and Sun wants to make her happy. Seeing her dejected so often makes him want to hold her like he is now, hold her and brighten her day. And in holding her like he is now, Sun sees Blake's beauty up close, and would be lying to say he didn't find her bewitching. He would be lying to say he didn't find her to be one of the most graceful people he knew. He would be lying if he denied the fact that in every moment he holds Blake by the hand and waist and dancing, her posture, her charm, her smell, her everything is eating away at his heart, for, that's what happen's when a boy fall in love.

For Blake, it wasn't simple. For every thought of how possibly charming Sun admittedly was, a literal and metaphorical pang of pain found it's place in Blake's heart, her own conscious finding her to be betraying the memory of Adam. Everything in her mind lead back to Adam, for having spent so much of her life with and owing the person she is now to Adam, Blake is inexplicably shackled to the man turned monster. She wanted to move on, but how could she, especially after devoting so much to that way of life? It amazed her all the same that she could and did in fact leave Adam, the man who essentially raised her... The thought confused her. She couldn't deny that he acted more like a harsh father than anything else, yet she lov... She couldn't finish the thought, it was too much for her to admit to herself now unlike earlier where she did, as now she has made the moral decision to abandon him... abandon, Blake thought, abandoning anything is a terrible thing to do...

One half of Blake's mind was on a self destructive path that had to be stopped, while the other simply enjoyed the moment, enjoyed the embrace of Sun, enjoyed the atmosphere of a dance, a communion between a group of people with like minded interest, and in this case, people who shared the burden of fighting for the greater good. Blake wondered, '_why me?'_ The question made her happy, thinking of the implications. Why did Sun find her interesting when he first met her at the same time as the adorable Ruby, the rich... something... looking Weiss, and the busty and beautiful Yang? It was a victory to Blake, but one she would never parade to her friends, as that would not end well. Then she thought, what about Sun? What about him?

The silence was broken, but surprisingly by Blake.

"What do you do for fun?" she asked, tilting her head while squinting.

He stumbled. "Wait- Where did that come from?" he thought it was a very out of the blue question considering their situation.

"I just realized, you know quite a bit about me, but, I know next to nothing about you." She gave him a steady small smile now, her yellow eyes locked on him, just another thing to make him fall for her.

"Uh... I like... bananas... and... I... jump, around... and... uh... play chess-"

"-What?" Blake interrupted flatly. As much as it shamed her to think, she didn't take Sun as a person who would play a game about strategy and patience and... thinking.

Sun eyed her sideways, "Why're you so surprised?"

Blake pursed her lips and looked to her side, admiring the curtains and how well they tied the room together.

"Yeah, I play chess, I gotta have something in my favor as a team leader-"

"-What?" Blake interrupted flatly, again.

"I'm done here..." he turned and started to walk away.

Blake reached out and pulled him back, Sun laughing all the while at her surprise of his character, unaware of her moment of terror where she saw him walk away and saw Adam do the same, the thought of abandonment killing her inside, even if it was for a moment. Fortunately for the both of them, Blake remained in the moment, and they continued talking for the rest of the night with their feet gliding across the ground.

-End Chapter 3-


	4. Chapter 4: Dis-allusionment

"And what about you Blake? You seem to carry yourself with a sense of purpose..."

"There's too much wrong in this world to just stand by and do nothing. Inequality, corruption... Someone has to stop it."

"Very well. How?"

"I, uh..."

Laying in her bedroll, Blake resisted the urge to slap herself as she thought about her response to Oobleck, the response being painfully embarrassing. More painful actually, especially when she reflected how her whole life she spent following Adam around without her own agenda, following him around and regurgitating every word and philosophy he spouted, enough so that she never even really thought through one of her first original thoughts. Her spiel on inequality and corruption was just a new thing to follow and fight for, an intangible that few would question. Oobleck questioned it, and Blake realized how immature she had been.

"Blake, are you awake?" Yang quietly spoke out.

Just as quietly, "Yeah."

"Why do you think he asked us about being a huntress? Like, what was he trying to say?" Yang asked.

"Maybe he was just curious" Blake said while she thought '_to wake us from our delusions'._

Yang didn't buy it, "You think?"

Coming clean, "No" Blake replied.

The bruiser then asked the duelist "Weiss, are you awake?"

She quietly snapped back, "Of course I'm awake! You two are talking. And I think... When I said I wanted to honor my family's name, I meant it. But, it's not what you think. I'm not stupid. I'm fully aware of what my father has done with the Schnee Dust Company. Since he took control, our business has operated in a... moral gray area."

To Blake's surprise, she didn't feel much of any anger towards Weiss or humans, but by obligation threw in "that's putting it lightly."

"Which is why I feel the need to make things right. If I had taken a job in Atlas, it wouldn't have changed anything. My father was not the start of our name, and I refuse to let him be the end of it." There was sorrow in Weiss's voice, sorrow which Blake heard well and it broke her heart, Blake relating well though in a completely different situation. She once again came clean.

"All my life, I fought for what I thought was right. I had a partner named Adam. More of a mentor, actually. He always assured me that what we were doing would make the world a better place. But of course, his idea of a perfect future turned out to be not perfect for everyone. I joined the Academy because I knew that Huntsmen and Huntresses were regarded as the most noble warriors in the world. Always fighting for good. But I never really thought past that. When I leave the Academy, what will I- how can I undo so many years of hate?" Blake knew that no matter how well she could cut through the skull of a Grimm, that won't help her get through the skulls of humans and faunus and change their minds. She didn't think about this before, but knew now. Then what is keeping her around to become a huntress? This troubled Blake.

"I'm sure you'd figure it out. You're not one to back down from a challenge, Blake" Yang said with confidence, though it was a bluff to comfort Blake. Blake was taken back by this, and somewhat infuriated. As far as she knew, she has yet to do anything that would suggest a confrontational and competitive attitude like Yang suggests, and how can a 'immature' girl like her figure out how to sway the minds of millions?

Blake channeled her anger, "But I am! I do it all the time! When you learned I was a faunus, I didn't know what to do, so I ran! When I realized my oldest partner had become a monster, I ran! Even my Semblance! I was born with the ability to leap behind a shadow of myself; an empty copy that takes the hit while I run away!" She wanted to cry, never stopping to think that she has in fact done little other than running until now, the reality check hurting.

Rolling onto her side, Yang at last vocalized her own worries, "at least you two have something that drives you. I've just kinda of always, gone with the flow, y'know? And that's fine, I mean, that's who I am. But how long can I really do that for? I wanna be a Huntress, not really because I want to be a hero, but because I want the adventure. I want a life where I won't know what tomorrow will bring. And that'll be a good thing. Being a Huntress just happens to line up with that. I'm not like Ruby, she's always wanted to be a Huntress. It's like she said, ever since she was a kid, she'd dreamt about being the heroes in the books. Helping people and saving the day, and never asking for anything else in return. Even when she couldn't fight, she knew that's what she wanted to do. That's why she trained so hard to get where she is today."

The thought of Ruby and her wholesale character comforted Yang and Blake, the thought that at least one of them knew what they were doing. "Well, she's still just a kid" Weiss thought to say.

"She's only two years younger. We're all kids" retorted Blake. '_That's right, again, immature...'_

"Well, not anymore. I mean, look where we are! In the middle of a war zone and armed to the teeth!" Yang argued.

Whether or not they were in a war zone or if they were armed to the teeth was debatable thought Blake, but at the same time, she was right. They gave up childhood, not all at the same time but along the line, "It's the life we chose."

"It's a job. We all had this romanticized vision of being a Huntress in our heads! But at the end of the day, it's a job to protect the people! And whatever we want will have to come second" Weiss said, finding comfort in thinking there wasn't a second option, that she had to perform in one way. With that, the conversation came to a close, nothing else needing to be said, and the girls made themselves comfortable to the best of their abilities, and slept.

-Later-

Blake woke up, her ears catching footsteps outside of their enclosure. Yang was just coming back in, noticing along with Blake and Weiss that Ruby was gone, yet Zwei ran in with Oobleck, and... Ren. Team RWBY was confused to say the least. It didn't help that Blake and Weiss were recovering from sleep.

"Ruby fell down a deep hole and doesn't have her weapon, and we have to rescue her!" Ren said, making it very clear they needed to make haste.

"Wha- Why are you here?" Weiss stammered, putting her Myrtenaster through it's ringlet at her hip.

"Our team's mission was to tail you, but no time for that, we have to go!" Ren's panic was a rare sight that inspired panic within the three girls, prompting them to hurry. Within a moment they were ready, and followed Ren who lead them down the stairs of the decrepit building and into the street, where the rest of team JNPR was waiting, all donning gray dirty cloaks with packs. They ran through the streets, following Zwei and Ren, both who were there to witness the cave in, and after a couple minutes, found the pre-mentioned 'hole'.

Oobleck exploded into an epiphany about expansion and tragedy and something the citizens of Mountain Glenn making a final attempt, but the only line that truly mattered to the youngsters was "If Ruby is down there, we must find her..." of which, all could agree. They jumped in, the fall being more than they expected, even Blake hurting herself a little in the process, but it again didn't help she was still waking up, the past few minutes feeling alot like a dream, after all, team JNPR was here, Ruby fell down a well, and Oobleck was talking.

It wasn't just Blake and Weiss that were off kilter, but Nora and Pyrrha as well who seemed to be rubbing sleep from their eyes. Once they hit bottom however, everyone was on the same page: pain. Fully awake, they took in the view of the underground buildings for only a moment before heading through the open door, finding themselves in cramped concrete hallways, with two options, left or right. With no particular evidence to point in one direction over another, Oobleck chose right for the party, and so they went. The already cramped hallways became easier to navigate as many of the intersections they might've had to make a decision on were either blocked up or obviously not in use save one route, but became even cramper, most of the space feeling... gone. The thought gnawed at their minds, what purpose did these claustrophobic hallways serve in their time, and what was it like for the people running for their lives through these hallways if they understood Oobleck right, 'if' being the key, as they couldn't keep up with his rapid fire antics of speech. It disturbed them to think what it would be like to be a helpless youngster with so much to live for, not knowing where you're going, not knowing if you're going to survive the next hour, Grimm everywhere, Grimm hunting people down, all while suffocating in these damned hallways. It actually pleased them to have their imaginations halted when they spotted White Fang members patrolling, a fight ensuing.

"Get 'em!" Jaune called out, charging ahead first, recklessly of course.

Sensing a clog up approaching, Weiss and Blake as the more acrobatic warriors in the group jumped over Jaune to lead the pack, instantly knocking out the two White Fang members. One of them got off a shot however, the noise of the gun echoing in the tunnel system like a bell, alerting the other White Fang members, starting a congo line of reinforcements that converged on the party, only to be defeated instantly. At some point however, the reinforcements stopped converging on them and instead ran away from them, figuring out a greater force was at hand. They came upon a door, several White Fang members attempting to close the heavy steel blast door before the intruders made it in, but Yang pushed her way to the front and punched the door with explosive force, knocking it from it's hinges, the frame from the concrete, and sending several faunas flying. Those who didn't suffer her fate ran, and the offensive group found themselves inside a railroad tunnel, and on their left was a full train complete with crew and cargo.

"I see Ruby!" Blake shouted, her being the one with the farthest vision.

Ruby was writhing on the ground in front of Torchwick who was making his way to the train while his associates lined up and fired at the intruders. Few shots made it even close to the charging warriors, and worse yet for the White Fang, they fired back and in force. Blake fired her pistol, Yang lobbed her explosive rounds, Nora fired several grenades, Pyrrha her rifle, and Ren his machine pistols, all forming a wall of fire and explosives only meters behind Ruby, mowing down the masked foes en mass. They saw Ruby puke, but they couldn't tell what was wrong with her, even as they closed in on her because of her face pointed down to the ground. They were still firing at the retreating enemy forces, but Ruby stood up slowly as if ignorant to the war being waged over her head, causing the teens to stop firing. Only thing was, Ruby didn't stand for too long, falling back down to her knees.

"Ruby! NO!" Yang screeched with all she had, running to Ruby and lifting her head. Blake didn't catch on to what made her flip out, but then it was displayed for all of them to see.

"Oh no..." Nora choked out, not believing her eyes. Blake still focused on the retreating foes, emptying her clip to cover her allies, not examining Ruby out of fear.

"Jaune, grab Ruby, as terrible as it is, we need to get on that train!" Oobleck called out, noticing the train beginning to inch forward.

Blake finally worked up the courage to look at Ruby before Jaune lifted her up, and all of the air in her lungs escaped her. She felt once again like she must've been in a dream, as none of this could've happened. She collected up the evidence in her mind, trying to convince herself it was still just a dream; team JNPR was here, Ruby fell down a hole, Oobleck had a epiphany, they find a secret White Fang hide out by impossible chance, and... Ruby had her right eye gouged out, the remains in the gravel in front of the dazed Ruby.

Blake wanted it to be a dream, but she knew it was real. Too real.

-End Chapter 4-


	5. Chapter 5: Breach

Up, down, spin around, Yang and Neo danced. Every passing moment, Yang's confidence in winning was diminished by the heterochromatic girl and her unsettling smile. If only she could land a hit thought Yang, but nothing got through, a straight jab, left uppercut, roundhouse kick, a shotgun shell, Neo just played it off like a mild rain, her umbrella trumping Yang's power. It didn't help that in-between every thought of how to fight back, the image of Ruby assaulted her mind, fear for both her and her sister undermining her ability to fight. This was the second time that Yang failed Ruby, and Yang couldn't comprehend it still.

In her desperation and passionate frustration, she punched the ground below Neo, creating a hole that revealed the tracks underneath the undercarriage. Neo flipped back, cracking Yang in the Jaw once for each foot, then waited a moment. The brawler had gotten her fist stuck in the thick iron of the train undercarriage, and she could feel the blood running down her hands from her shredded wrist, and panicked. Blood meant low aura, low aura meant you had lost. Neo smiled wildly once more, then gave a sassy knee to the Brawler's face, knocking her back, out, and from the hole.

Positioning herself at Yang's side, Neo readied her foil just above the unconscious girl's stomach, unflinching in her goal to kill her opponent. As she stabbed downwards, from the corner of her eye she spotted a blood curdling portal open, a armored warrior dashing out and attacking the tiny girl, prompting her retreat. The red warrior looked over the Brawler for a moment, but decided she was needed elsewhere that moment, and left. Yang caught just a glimpse of the stranger, but nothing to determine the identity or, well, anything about the stranger.

Rather than getting up immediately, Yang put her hand on her warm left side to discover blood. Whatever the small girl had attempted, she only partially succeeded. A decently sized hole had gone through her an inch in from her side missing anything important, but it still managed to further panic Yang. It didn't hurt, but, that was the magic of adrenaline which had woken her back up in the first place. She decided to giver herself a minute before trekking on to the top of the train.

Weiss jolted awake behind Blake. They were both in the front of the roaring train where Blake paced frantically side to side eyeing the controls for any obvious brakes to the train. Regaining her wits, Weiss spoke up, much to Blake's surprise.

"Do you have this handled?"

"Oh my dust!" Blake gasped. "I don't know- I don't know how to control a train!"

"Well figure something out! I'm going on top to help out!"

She dragged over a small crate to stand on, the hatch being a few feet out of reach. Turning the wheel, Weiss popped the hatch and climbed out to the sight of stolen military tech she didn't recognize combating Ren and Nora, soon joined by Yang. The wind rushed past her with haste, leaving her deaf to Yang's screams of warning.

"Wall!" Yang screamed from several train carts away as she turned to run.

"Mall? Wha... wall...?" Weiss realized all too late what Yang meant.

Blake panicked. The choice was down to two levers on the control panel, both having any useful labels worn away from use from a past era. The one on the left was in what appeared to be the middle position and the one on the right was all the way back pointing at her. It became a matter of common sense at that point she thought. The one on the left was in the half way position because the train would have to be given a set amount of power to move a certain speed obviously. The one on the right was all the way back because a conductor or in this case a White Fang member wouldn't run a train with the brakes on, that would unnecessarily overheat the brakes, and if one were to apply the brakes in case of an emergency, the deceleration would lean the operator towards the brakes, allowing them to brake even if they were somehow weak in the arms. The same applied to the power lever... probably. She only took the moment to process all of her logic, but she spotted the tunnel wall approaching rapidly through the small window of the train.

Her eyes widened in terror and she slammed both levers forward with no hesitation.

There was no resistance in her right hand. The lever flew out of the control panel, the bolts having been removed in case of this contingency. On the other hand, pushing the left lever made the train jerk forward with greater speed.

"No..." was all Blake had the time to whimper before everything went white.

Yang reached out for Ruby who disappeared behind Jaune along with Pyrrha. A modicum of relief came to Yang for if someone else was taking care of Ruby, her worry subsided even if it was just a little. Before she knew it, she didn't feel the ground beneath her as she was launched through the air. Looking down, she saw the train had stopped just outside the wall of the tunnel, along with the shallow gash the pink haired girl had left on her stomach when she attempted to execute her. The red and black orb and lady reappeared in Yang's mind, questions swarming her appearance. That train of thought shattered with the real one however when she bounced off the ground several times before sliding to a stop in front of an older business man.

Blake kicked hard against the metal trapping her inside the train. From what she could make out, the front had caved in and pinned her against the rear wall, the front being shattered into segments of bent steel held barely together by stubborn rivets. It was a miracle she wasn't killed she thought. She probably would have if she didn't jump backwards at the last second to slow her relative velocity. She began to kick the metal of the train with all her strength, cursing all the way to vent off the pain.

"Freaking" kick, "Roman! Killing" kick "people," kick "and stuff" kick "and the White" kick "Fang, Freaking" kick "hurting Ruby" kick "and..." kick "...and other things" kick "that I can't remember" kick "at the moment" kick "and Tukson" kick "of course" kick "and stuff" kick...

What seemed like a minute she spent kicking with the fear of claustrophobia backing her up until enough clearance was made along one of the shattered seams for her to crawl out. Her allies were already engaged with the Grimm that came spilling in through the tunnel. Most of the citizens that were in the area ran as quickly as they could, but Blake spotted more than an acceptable amount of non aura users ravaged by the Grimm, unable to defend themselves when the beast broke in.

For better or for worse, the Grimm seemed to be more attracted to living prey, as the black beings congregated to the students when the easier prey had gathered too much distance. Blake cut through several Grimm when she finally assessed their circumstances. Weiss, Yang, and Ruby were having a hard time and were on the verge of feinting, she was relatively unharmed from her train fight with Roman, but was still none of the less tired, Oobleck was no where to be seen, and Ren and Nora were still fighting at full strength but were soon to be overwhelmed.

'At this rate, without reinforcements, we'll lose...' Blake concluded.

At that moment, a beaten and bloodied Weiss made one final attack summoning a fantastically large ice blade that destroyed the crowding Grimm then fell to her knees unconscious. Ruby took notice.

"Yang! Take Weiss and run to safety!." Demanded a equally beaten looking Ruby. Blake could see a makeshift wrap around her eye, but it was already red.

Yang would've normally resisted such a notion as running away, but seeing Weiss defenseless made Yang's mind for her. She rushed forward, giving a off hand punch to a Beowolf on the way and tackling a charging boarbutusk aimed for Weiss. She wrestled it to a neck grab, giving it a passionate twist till it's neck made enough sounds that Yang was sure it had sufficiently died to her taste. Then she shotgun punched it's stretched throat. Snatching Weiss, Yang darted off to cover.

To no one's and everyone's surprise, Ruby refused to go without a fight. In her rage, she stabbed the ground in a vengeful fit, unloading her entire stock of ammunition into the Grimm. When she ran dry of bullets, she dashed forward headstrong into the face of a deathstalker planning on piercing it's eye.

"Ruby no!" Blake could hear Jaune cry.

Her swing struck to the left an inch...

and a foot short.

The deathstalker slapped the small Rose with it's mighty claw and sent her flying once again.

"Ruby!" Cried Nora this time, despair replacing the authoritative tone Jaune used.

"Blake! Your turn! Take Ruby and run!" Jaune commanded.

Ruby started to stand ready to fight, both Jaune and the Grimm.

"Screw you Jaune!" She made another mad dash.

Blake shadowed Ruby understanding what Jaune was concerned with. Blake found herself at another cross roads however, where either she let Ruby fight and possibly die, or she left JNPR totally alone to deal with the Grimm. The decision was made for her fairly quickly. Ruby slammed into the face of a Nevermore, stunning herself. Blake complied with Jaune's wishes and saved Ruby in mid air, then made way from the scene and indistinct shouts.

Ruby squirmed and wrangled in Blake's hold, trying to get back to the battle, but Blake easily out muscled her. Kicking in the door of a antique store, Blake threw Ruby down against the wall and pushed a heavy desk in front of the door. Ruby stood up to get back out, but feinted on the spot much to Blake's momentary relief. It killed her nerves to think that Ruby was now compliant only because of blood loss however, but she halted herself from worrying about that problem for the moment and moved to worrying about the problem outside the building.

She stood behind the square column to the left of the large store window, looking out and watching as team JNPR and soon team SSSN suppressed the Grimm, soon team CFVY murdering most of the black beasties, then soon the Atlas military flying in as well like big heroes and gunning down the rest. It was only now that Blake noticed the still body propped against the base of the window in a desperate manner. Reaching for the middle aged woman, the girl discovered that she was cold to the touch, and a mild surprise came over Blake. It was a insignificant detail, an incident unimportant to everything else going on around her, but Blake was un-nerved by the dead woman, untouched by evil, who had simply had a heart attack upon sight of the Grimm.

Moving the desk from the door, Blake carried Ruby out to the transport that landed in the middle of the town square, laying the delicate Rose upon white sheets for the medical transport to deliver. Yang came out of hiding as well with Weiss, putting her in with Ruby and regrouping with Blake.

"So what now?" Blake asked without tone, tired and without expectations of an answer.

"I don't know..." Yang let out a long sigh, waving her arm around to shake the blood off. "We could talk to JNPR, find out what they hell they were doing here, we could sleep, we could weep, we could eat, who knows..." She put her hands on her hips, somewhat admiring the piles of Grimm laying around and ignoring the occasional civilian.

"You're injured!" Blake noticed the bloody hole going through Yang.

"I'm trying not to think about it..."

-End Chapter 5-


End file.
